Referees once again dominated the source of conversation in the National Football League, this time taking centre stage during the Kansas City Chiefs’ 20-17 defeat to the Buffalo Bills that left Patrick Mahomes incensed with a call against Kadarius Toney, but was the quarterback right?
The moment came when Toney delivered a late touchdown that would’ve given the Chiefs the lead following an excellent lateral move by Travis Kelce, only for the wide receiver’s score to be flagged for lining up offside.
Mahomes then had to be held back by teammates as he went after the referees, with the 28-year-old’s emotions boiling over. He had not cooled down by full-time either, slamming the officiating team in his post-match interview but he doesn’t seem to be correct in his anger.
“When officiating the line of scrimmage,” Gene Steratore, an analyst for CBS, wrote on X.com, formerly Twitter. “General philosophy is not to be overly technical and split hairs over very minor infractions (such as a receiver’s hand slightly breaking the LOS).
“However, when an infraction is so egregious and obvious, a flag has to be thrown. Kadarius Toney is blatantly lined up offside and in the neutral zone.
“You rarely see an offsides penalty on the offense, but that is not because this play in #BUFvsKC isn’t a foul. It is because a receiver rarely lines up offsides.”
